Soulless

Hey guys, this is my first ever fanfiction, and to be honest, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing :S I hope that I don't make a fool out of myself, but I'm not going to ask all replies to be nice. Criticisms are welcomed, but outright insults will be ignored.

Anyway, this story is based on some daydream I had one day at school, and I thought the idea was pretty cool. It's essentially a story asking 'What if the 'Silent Assassins' from Doctor Who managed to find their way into the Bleach universe'... nothing good I'm sure!

Anyway, enough of this, and I hope you enjoy! ^^

(PS This is just an introduction chapter, so it will probably be rather boring and short, but other chapters will definitely be longer and have more interesting stuff and stuff!)

Chapter One: What in the World?

It was almost a year and a half since the defeat of one Sosuke Aizen. Over that period of time, the wounds of the injured had mostly been licked clean, and life was pretty much back to normal. Well, as normal as it could be for a society of dead people with powers that are on a different level to any of the most high-tech human gear there was available at the time.

One such being, known as a Shinigami, or rather in this instance, a Substitute Shinigami, was walking home after a long day at school. During the day he had suffered through three tests, an angry teacher due to his lack of completion of an essay homework, and the annoying antics of several people that he calls friends. What made it worse was that at lunchtime, a group of thugs had picked a fight on him, and his best friend had been ill that day, so he was not there to watch his back.

The name of this (rather dejected) Substitute Shinigami was Ichigo Kurosaki, and he was 17 years of age. Ichigo was approximately 6 feet in height and weighed about 145 pounds. He had an athletic build with well toned muscles, and his biggest personality trait was that he had a fierce protective nature over those who he cared about. All of this would make any girl's heart melt, if it wasn't for his two most predominant features: a deep frown that was almost nearly present on his face, and his hair colour, which was bright orange.

This last feature always attracted unwanted attention towards him, so he was never surprised when he was confronted by thugs and hoodlums, many of which he had never even met before. That is why Ichigo's only reaction when a group of five hooded youths approached him as he neared his house was for his scowl to become much deeper. 'What is it with all these people picking fights with me today', he thought angrily.

"Hey, you, carrot top!", the man at the front, a burly looking person in his late teens, shouted. "Stop there and become our punching bag because of what you did to Dusty-sama earlier." "Maybe if you comply, then we'll make it quick, and we'll leave you alone afterwards, if not then we will make your life hell for the rest of your life!"

"Look, I have had a REALLY bad day, and you are not making my mood any better, so like hell I would just do what you say, punks!", Ichigo shouted back.

"Fine then, be that way!", the leader spat. "Just don't complain when you end up as a bloody lump on the floor." "GET HIM BOYS!", he roared. A cheer went up as the four other thugs charged at Ichigo. He closed his eyes and inwardly sighed. 'Damn, how can this day get any worse?' 'I suppose that I'll just have to finish this as quickly as possible.'

Ichigo opened his eyes just as the first guy reached him. Said guy threw a punch aimed straight for his gut... just to meet thin air! "Huh?", the thug stupidly let out. 'Stupid AND clumsy', Ichigo thought. 'This will be easier than I thought.

Whilst the thug was still trying to figure out why he missed, Ichigo sent a jab right at his neck, knocking him out instantly. The next two to reach him yelled about their fallen comrade, and lunged at Ichigo. 'Geez, Yuzu would be able to outrun these guys', thought Ichigo, as he sidestepped their joined effort and watched as they hit eachother, collapsing in a heap.

However, Ichigo had little time to celebrate, as the fourth grunt had used his comrades' idiocy as a distraction to slip behind Ichigo, and if it wasn't for his trainer scrapping against tarmac as he let loose a kick at his unprotected back, Ichigo probably wouldn't have noticed. However, Ichigo heard a scrapping, and turned around just in time to grab the guy's legs and through him at the two idiots, who had just untangled themselves and got up from the floor. The fourth guy hit them as they were getting ready to charge again, and they all fell back onto the floor, unconscious.

The leader stared at Ichigo with a mixture of anger and shock. He was annoyed that Ichigo had defeated his hand-picked henchmen so easily, but he wasn't sure if he could do anything about it. However, like all brave idiots, he charged, yelling as he did, at Ichigo. He didn't get half way, however, before he tripped over a loose bit of tarmac on the road, and landed on his face.

Ichigo stared wide eyed at the spectacle, and then burst out laughing. 'Oh geez, that was brilliant.' 'Just what I needed to cheer myself up', he thought. With that, Ichigo dusted himself off, and continued on his walk home.

Somewhere in the Rukon Districts, Soul Society

If anybody had been looking down the gap between two specific buildings at precisely 11:06 PM that night, they would have seen a strange sight. Even if they had been near the alleyway, they would have felt the ominous presence enter the air almost in an instance. However, there wasn't anybody nearby, there hadn't been for a while. Therefore, nobody saw the sudden light that appeared at the back of the dark space, behind a pile of trash. Inside the light, an opening in the air formed. It looked like a Garganta, apart from one massive difference. The portal was a blinding white, rather than the blackness of the portal a hollow made.

Out of this portal came six beings at blinding speeds. If one was to look closely down the alleyway, they would have seen that the figures looked relatively humanoid, with a few distinctive differences.

After about ten seconds, the portal closed, and the alleyway was plunged into pitch black darkness. Then the creatures moved.

And that's a wrap. Hopefully this wasn't too bad. Remember, any advice is openly welcome, and it would be good to see if I should continue with this, as I would enjoy to, but it's all up to you! Takeru.